


Letters to Maes

by lexieconextreme



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Roy is sad, writing letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 14:21:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 5,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19336288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexieconextreme/pseuds/lexieconextreme
Summary: Roy writes letters to Maes after his death, because its the only thing he can do to stay sane.





	1. Letter #1

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic first posted on FFnet. I would apologize, but I won't.

**_~Letter #1~_ **

_Hughes..._

_Goddamn you, you bastard. Why didn’t you just mind your own business? Why did you find it necessary to stick your nose so far in that somebody had to kill you for it?!_

_I don’t even know why I’m asking. I know exactly why you did it. You did it for those boys. I don’t know why I’m demanding an answer from you. I would’ve done the same, and you're dead. God, I haven’t even told them. I never told them about what’s happening in Liore, and I still haven’t told them that you died. They deserve to know. God-- no. Truth knows that they deserve to know._

_But I can’t tell them. Not yet. They need to stay focused on their task. They need to get their bodies back._

_But they’re going to hate me forever if they find out from anyone else but me. Ed will undoubtedly think that I hid your death from he and Al for some nefarious purpose. But if the delay in their knowledge of your death gets them that much further in getting their bodies back, then it will be worth it. Alphonse is too kind for his own good. I know he will say I had a reason, a good reason. But no matter what he will say, Ed will hate me with his whole being. Because I hid your death, and he will blame himself. Then he’ll blame me._

_Because I should’ve been able to save you. I should’ve been able to save you, Maes. I’m so sorry._

_Forgive me._


	2. Letter #2

**_~Letter #2~_ **

_Hughes..._

_They promoted you to Brigadier General. Weren’t_ you _supposed to push me up from below? Wasn’t that our deal? But then you go and die on me and get promoted two whole ranks!_

_The Elric brothers have gone off on another one of their leads. They said something about visiting their teacher again. I still didn’t tell them. I couldn’t. I was just about to, but I couldn’t. They left Headquarters, and then Central all together._

_Your funeral was just about the worst thing since Ishval. Elicia couldn’t understand what was happening. She screamed and cried the entire time, wondering why on earth they were putting her father in the ground. Gracia wasn’t much better, though of course she didn’t scream. Silent tears ran down her cheeks as she struggled to both contain her emotions and keep Elicia from leaping into the grave with you._

_Fuhrer Bradley was there as well. While his features remained calm and carefully composed, it was clear to me that he was barely that. His hands shook throughout the entire ceremony._

_Our very own Fuhrer was moved by your death, Maes. The very same one we criticized for the choices he made in Ishval._

_I don’t know what to think anymore. Which might be why I’m writing letters to a dead man._

_It rains every day now, Maes. And I can’t make it stop._


	3. Letter #3

**_~Letter #3~_ **

_Maes..._

_Things are going to shit, Maes. They really are._

_Your Second Lieutenant Maria Ross was charged with your murder, you know. For a while, I honestly thought that it was her. And I was ready to kill her without a single moment’s hesitation._

_But you would’ve been upset with me if I did that, and you would’ve wanted me to look closer to see if that was the whole truth._

_As it turns out, Maes, it wasn’t the whole truth. Ross is innocent, though the entire military had decided that she was guilty before they’d even taken her statement._

_Barry the Chopper (you remember him, right?) has been a useful witness. He was the one who told me what happened at Lab Five, and how Ross’s bullet really was used on him, rather than on you._

_Ross is safe now. I had Barry break her out of prison, and we faked her death. She’s on her way to Xing now, I should think. I had Armstrong drag Fullmetal out to the desert ruins of Xerxes so they would both know that I wasn’t Ross’s cold-blooded murderer._

_But make no mistake, Maes. I will find whoever really killed you._

_And I_ will _make them regret it._


	4. Letter #4

**_~Letter #4~_ **

_Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark, Maes. I can smell it. I just can’t see it._

_The Fuhrer, who looked so devastated at your funeral, is now acting more suspiciously than ever. I honestly don’t know what to make of it, Maes. I wish you were here to help me sort it all out._

_Ever since I sent Ross east to Xing, I’ve been having Falman keep an eye on Barry the Chopper in case anyone from the prison where Ross was being held recognized him, and was able to give a description to the people who killed you. And something’s fishy about it._

_And because Lieutenant Hawkeye agrees with me, I’ve sent her undercover to watch Falman and Barry’s safe house. She’s keeping a bird’s eye view of the apartment, and really the only thing I’ve been doing since she left is keep phone contact with her._

_I’m worried, Maes. I’ve got this feeling in the pit of my stomach, and it isn’t a good one. You know it rarely is._

_Something is rotten in the state of Amestris, Maes. Far more rotten than anything in Denmark ever was, and Central is the root. The only problem will be locating this root, and destroying it._

_What were you working on, Maes? What on earth was so important that the people behind the rot decided you were too dangerous to let live?_

_***_

_Oh hell no, something’s wrong with Hawkeye. There’s something in the tower with her, Fuery, and Black Hayate. I have to go find them, Maes._

_Even if it means that I die, and I never get revenge for your death._

_Sometimes, the only thing we can do is focus on the present._

_God help me._


	5. Letter #5

**_~Letter #5~_ **

_ I found the root, Maes. I found the root of the problem, or at least part of it. _

_ There are endless tunnels underneath Central. And there are monsters there as well. It seems clear that one of their kind murdered you, but I have yet to find out who. _

_ I’m in the hospital now, but only for a little while. I now have two people to avenge; you and Havoc. He lost his legs, Maes. He lost them protecting me from the monster underneath Central. _

_ This is my fault, and all he wants me to do is leave him behind. I don’t know if I can do that, Maes. The best I can do is slow down and give him a chance to catch up. _

_ Anyway, the monster underneath Central; Alphonse told me before that they’re Homunculi, but I didn’t believe him. I was too afraid to. I was too afraid of what that could mean. And then a few nights ago, I saw it. One of them, at least. Lust, it was called. _

_ It thought it had murdered Havoc and left me to die alongside him, but it was wrong. When I caught up with it, it had all but brought Hawkeye to the very verge of giving up. I could see the hopelessness in her eyes, even as she fired her many bullets in attempt to go down fighting to the monster that had said it killed me. _

_ It was a very good thing that I wasn’t actually dead. Hawkeye and Al would probably have been murdered by Lust on the spot if I hadn’t burnt it to a miserable husk when I did. _

_ It said it couldn’t wait for the day when my eyes would be filled with agony, Maes. I’m not afraid to admit that it shook me, the whole experience, in fact. _

_ But now I know where to start looking for the Homunculus that killed you. In the tunnels underneath Central. I must remember to ask Alphonse what else he knows about them. _

_ I’ve been alive for thirty years, Maes, but now it feels as if I have no time left. _

_ I must work faster. _


	6. Letter #6

**_~Letter #6~_ **

_ Maes... _

_ I can’t fix Havoc. Marcoh is gone, and I think the Homunculi did it. One of them is a shape-shifter, and I’m pretty sure that’s the one who took him. _

_ Armstrong had told me that Marcoh still had one of those incomplete stones in his possession, and that he was using it to heal in that little town of his. I sent Breda to bring him here, possibly give Havoc his legs back. _

_ But no. The Homunculi could not have acted at a worse time, though I’m inclined to believe they did it on purpose. I know they know more than a little about my plans, which is why I suppose they handed Ross to me, wrapped in what was supposed to be a pretty pink bow. _

_ Havoc’s being discharged, Maes. He begged me to cut him loose, saying I had no use for a pawn who couldn’t use his legs.  _

_ One of my pieces is already gone, and we’re not five minutes into the game. _

_ But I’m not giving up on him. Not quite yet. Not while there's still hope. I’ll just have to find Marcoh myself and have him get Havoc’s legs back. I know he thinks me a fool for refusing to leave him behind, but you know me well enough, Maes. You know me well enough to know that I’ll never leave anyone behind. _

_ Isn’t that the unspoken military motto? “No man left behind,” huh? It applies to this situation as well.  _

_ Oh, I almost forgot. Fullmetal is behaving oddly. He’s fixing things up around the city, and earning the respect of almost every citizen in Central. Everyone’s talking about him. It’s almost like he’s forgotten Scar is still in the city. _

_ Or maybe he hasn’t. That doesn’t seem like something even hot-headed Fullmetal would just forget about. He  _ has  _ to be trying to attract Scar’s attention. The question is why. _

_ I repeat what I said a few letters ago, Maes. Everything is going to shit, and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it. _


	7. Letter #7

**_~Letter #7~_ **

_ Why am I writing to you? You’re dead. These letters are just sitting in a dusty shoebox, in the farthest corner of the topmost shelf in my unused study at home, where I’m rarely at. _

_ Please just give me one good, Goddamned reason I’m still writing to you as if you’re here. _

_ Maybe it calms me, for some unfathomable reason. I hate this, Maes. I hate all of it. _

_ Why can’t you just be alive? Spring out of your oak box, grinning at me and showing me your endless pictures of Elicia. _

_ I wouldn’t mind if you did it again, Maes. I promise I wouldn’t snap at you to stop, or threaten you with an actual, physical snap. _

_ I wouldn’t give a shit if I could just hear your mindless babble again, one more time. Just be here. _

 

_ please just be here _


	8. Letter #8

**_~Letter #8~_ **

_ I was a little upset, could ya tell? _

_ And again, I find myself asking you a question. Like you’ll answer. I wish you would.  _

_ Don’t worry, Maes. I’m not gonna go nuts again tonight.  _

_ Right now, I’m sitting in a dusty old shack out in the middle of the woods. Fun, right? Fullmetal captured a Homunculus, a fat one called Gluttony. That’s why he was trying to attract Scar’s attention, because he thought the Homunculus would want to keep the Ishballan from killing him. _

_ Which he was, thank God, right about. Fullmetal was lookin’ pretty bad when we got out here. I’m not sure how much longer he would have been able to hold out against Scar without that Xingese friend of his. _

_ Not that I’m doing much better myself. I’m still pretty useless even after being out of the hospital for a few days. I won’t be able to help my friends should the need arise.  _

_ I really will be as useless as Fullmetal likes to say I am. _

_ \--Sorry, have to go Maes. Figure I gotta introduce myself to that Xingese prince I mentioned earlier. _

_ I could use the allies. _


	9. Letter #9

**_~Letter #9~_ **

_ Hawkeye found the last two letters. Rather, she didn’t find them, but saw them lying on my desk. Where I left them out in the open. Like a fool. _

_ She didn’t actually say much about it. She simply read through the last with an unreadable expression, and the one before with an expression that looked almost heartbroken. _

_ After the Lieutenant had read through them, she set them back on the desk where they were before. I picked them up quickly and stuffed them inside my jacket. She had turned to leave. _

_ “Lieutenant,” I said. _

_ She had turned to look at me. “Do you think I’m crazy? For writing to him?” _

_ Hawkeye had shaken her head, chocolate brown eyes sad. “No, sir,” she said in quiet voice. “For you, I think it's the healthiest way to express your pain without...” _

_ There wasn’t really a need for her to finish the sentence. _

_ Without self-destructing. _

_ If we’re being honest here, Maes, we both know that that’s what would happen. Let’s be thankful I had a predetermined goal to focus on. _

_ God knows what would have happened if I didn’t. _


	10. Letter #10

**_~Letter #10~_ **

_ Would you have guessed that our very own Fuhrer, the one who shook so emotionally at your funeral, is a Homunculus? _

_ I certainly wouldn’t have. _

_ I thought I could at least trust Raven. You remember I told you Grumman gave me something to know whether I could trust Raven? It worked, but apparently, it didn’t, if that makes sense. _

_ Raven has been in league with the Fuhrer, the Homunculi, and whoever the hell their leader is. _

_ Oh, and my entire team has been reassigned. Fuery to the south, Breda to the west, Falman to the North, and Hawkeye to the Furher’s office. Just like that, the bastard’s taken all my pieces so I have nothing left to play with. _

_ I want to get to the bottom of this, Maes, I really do. I just don’t know where to start, or even if I should. I guess this is what you got too close to, Maes. I figured it out, or at least a part of it. _

_ The entire military is involved, isn’t it? And the country and military is being led by a Homunculus, and no one knows the Truth. Ha. The country is being led by a blood-thirsty Homunculus with Truth knows what end game. _

_ What the hell am I supposed to do, Maes? I guess I could go back to Grumman, tell him that Raven has turned. But I have no way of knowing if Grumman has turned as well, though him being stationed out in the boondocks may be because he turned down whatever offer they gave him. _

_ Ugh. This is getting harder by the day, and God knows  _ you  _ know what a lazy bastard I can be. Fullmetal certainly knows it. _

_ Speaking of our little friend, alchemy went out this morning. And I mean that literally. Everyone is Central’s alchemy, like electricity, just went out for some reason. I know Fullmetal has something to do with it, because barely an hour afterward he and Al showed up to my little meeting with our ever-loving Fuhrer. He didn’t get a chance to tell me why, though.  _

_ We both have the sense we’re being watched, and neither of us wants to act under supervision like that. Even just to share little details like how suddenly I couldn’t heat my coffee this morning. _

_ Fullmetal said that soon, he and Al are going to head up North, to Briggs to look for something. I’m not sure what, he never really did say.  _

_ Too much has been happening lately, and I’m not very happy about it at all. The world needs to slow down a little. I’m old, injured, and I can’t keep up. _

_ At least, that’s what Fullmetal likes to say. _


	11. Letter #11

**_~Letter #11~_ **

_ I had a dream last night, Maes. I remember when we were still at the academy, when we found out about the start of the Ishballan War. There was that one soldier who the others attacked and teased relentlessly, you remember him. The Ishballan soldier. _

_ He was a good man, Maes. Before he turned. Before he was betrayed, and he in turn betrayed us. That was my dream, though slightly more nightmarish. I saw him again, in my dream. But when I woke up, the nightmare didn’t vanish like they usually do. I could still see him, for minutes after I woke up. _

_ Riza told me she had told Fullmetal almost everything that happened during the war. I guess somehow, that brought back the memories I’ve fought so hard to suppress. _

_ I don’t want to have these memories, Maes. I wish I wouldn’t. _


	12. Letter #12

**_~Letter #12~_ **

_ A princess from Xing, a weird black and white cat, homunculi, strange alchemy, and a certain pipsqueak who plans to blackmail me for 520 cenz for the rest of eternity. The world is getting pretty odd, Maes. _

_ I’ve heard some odd theories circulating that Scar has Doctor Marcoh and is transporting him North, which is odd in and of itself. That’s where Fullmetal is, and I somehow think that can’t be a coincidence. _

_ I’ve also heard that Kimblee’s been released and has been sent to kill Scar and capture the doctor if possible. That doesn’t sound like much of a coincidence either. _

_ Oh, and I met with Grumman. But I would think you know that, as we met at your grave. He was dressed as an old woman, which is by far the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. And I hope I will never see it again. Ever. _

_ Anyway, like I said, Fullmetal has headed up north with his brother. I have to admit I’m a little worried about the pipsqueak. His automail could freeze up there, but I assume he’s checked in with his mechanic. Fullmetal couldn’t be dumb enough not to, right? _

_ I picked the brothers up on my way to my meeting with Madeline, which is when Fullmetal promised to keep my money hostage until I became president. And then until I made Amestris a democracy. What a brat. _

_ The only compensation I got for it was seeing the look on his (and somehow, Al’s) face when they watched me stop to pick up Madeline. They must’ve thought she was my girlfriend for the evening or something, they looked so shocked. Well, it's not my fault Madeline just happens to be very beautiful! She’s also just a very good message-carrier. _

What kind of person goes on dates at a time like this,  _ I heard Fullmetal ask as I drove away. _

_ I know what you’d say, Maes. _

_ Get a wife, right? _


	13. Letter #13

**_~Letter #13~_ **

_ I bought a lot of flowers. Now everyone in Central thinks I’m crazy. _

_ Just imagine what they’d think if they knew I was still writing to you, of all people. _

_ The odd stares were worth the information I got, though. The Northern Wall of Briggs is already planning for an attack, when neither of us really knows what’s going to happen yet. Planning a defense against an unknown enemy... It’s hard to work through, but I imagine we can do it. _

_ General Armstrong wants the power of the Eastern army forces, and she says I can get lost, for all she cares. Yet for all that dislike, she still trusts me. “Mustang’s not that kind of a man,” she said in response to her messenger, when asked if I might sell this information to the president. _

_ How odd, Hughes. In the end, the people who understand and support us the most seem to always be the comrades we once fought alongside, eh? _

_ But for right now... What the hell am I going to do with all these flowers? _


	14. Letter #14

**_~Letter #14~_ **

_ It’s worse than you thought, Maes. Somehow, this just makes it worse. _

_ Selim Bradley is a homunculus. _

_ The idea that a  _ child  _ like Selim could be a despicable, inhuman monster...The idea that it could have been Selim who murdered you. _

_ I’m not sure yet, and somehow I doubt there’s going to be an opportunity for me to find out. Right now, the absolute  _ last  _ thing I want is for the enemy to know I know about Selim Bradley. _

_... He threatened Hawkeye, Maes. She found him out, and he threatened her. She didn’t say it, not even in her code, but I could see it in her eyes. There was a paper thin cut on her cheek, but even random papercuts can’t even get to your face. _

_ He threatened her. I almost lost her, Maes. I almost lost my queen. _

_ The game is on. _


	15. Letter #15

**_~Letter #15~_ **

_ There was a disturbance at the Bradley household tonight. I’ve heard from several bribed guards that it was the young Xingese prince, though I find that a little hard to believe. _

_ I was inclined to believe that maybe it was Envy, using Ling’s appearance to get in, though it was quickly discounted. Envy wouldn’t need a disguise to get into the Fuhrer’s house, and even if he did, why would he choose Ling’s form? _

_ It just doesn’t make sense. The guards said the prince was fast as lightning, which sounds accurate to the prince that I know, but they also said his skin alternated between carbon gray and skin tone. And when it turned gray, it turned as hard as steel, and the Fuhrer’s sword bounced right off it. _

_ What in the hell, Maes? I didn’t think Ling was the type to join the homunculi, so maybe he was forced into it somehow?  _

_ Ugh. I don’t know, and I really don’t like not knowing. _


	16. Letter #16

**_~Letter #16~_ **

_ Hmm, I’m not really sure how to go about this. I’m not sure if I should introduce myself again, or if you already “know.” _

_ But this seems to help the Colonel, so I thought I might try a letter or two. _

_ It’s Riza, General Hughes. I’m not really sure what to write, but he seems to use it as a diary with you for an audience. _

_ I suppose he might have already told you, but I found out that Selim Bradley is a homunculus, and if I’m right, one of the most powerful of them all. And he threaten to kill me, and the Colonel as well. As if somehow, he knew about our promise. _

_ I’m scared. I can’t admit it to anyone else, but I’m terrified. Every shadow I see in the corner of my eye is like a flicker of the homunculus, and it's all I can do not to run home and hide in the darkest place I can find. _

_ It’s odd, but I think this did help me somehow.  _

_ Thank you, General. _


	17. Letter #17

**_~Letter #17~_ **

_ What is it with these disturbingly good ways to send messages that everyone else besides me seems to have, hmm? What is it, Maes? _

_ First the flower lady, “just a grandma that’s been serving the Armstrong family for generations.” _

_ Yikes. Let’s just thank the Truth she didn’t rip off her shirt and gleam with pink sparkles. _

_ And then through Havoc’s cigarettes. I wonder how exactly Grumman and Major General Armstrong have been communicating, otherwise, there would have been no way for them to organize so quickly. _

_ They’re both such conniving people. I’m starting to wonder if I’m even going to live out this war. _

_ Armstrong certainly hates me enough. _

_ The Promised Day is coming soon, Maes. We’ll be ready to act. Act against an unknown enemy. An unknown enemy with untold powers and Truth knows what else. _

_ I wish you were here to help me sort this out. _


	18. Letter #18

**_~Letter #18~_ **

_ Do you know what the hyacinth symbolizes, Maes? Gentle charm! _

_ Major General Armstrong is gonna hate me forever for that one, but it was  _ so  _ worth it. _

_ And anyway, it got my message across. I didn’t want her or her troops going into battle without the knowledge of what Selim really is. _

_ Or was. Intel is that Selim was on the train with Bradley when they blew up the tracks. The Eastern troops blew the tracks while Bradley and his men were stranded there, and since it was reported that Selim went with his father to observe the training exercise, it is also assumed that Selim died on the train with his father. _

_ I somehow sincerely doubt that. I also doubt that Bradley’s dead. It took several bursts of flame to kill Lust, and I don’t think a simple train wreck above a river would be enough to kill a homunculus. _

_ I don’t like this at all. At least before the wreck, we knew at least where Bradley was, and had a general location on Selim. Now, we don’t know where in the hell they are. _

_ Any one of us could be taken. And this time, there might not be any way to stop them. _


	19. Letter #19

**_~Letter #19~_ **

_ So I had to blow up poor Aunt Chris’s bar tonight. That was fun.  _

_ She’d just dug up a bunch of information that no one human was supposed to get their hands on, so I’m not too surprised that the military came looking for her. Although, I do have to wonder if it was Aunt Chris they were looking for, or me. I’m not quite sure which option I want to believe more. Both are terrible options. _

_ My men were waiting for orders. Hawkeye had obtained the Bradley family’s schedule for the next few days, although that’s obviously useless now that Selim and Bradley are missing. We have a one-way ticket to the battlefield. If we fail, we can never come back. Which is why the only order I could give to them was this: don’t die. _

_ Perhaps to go to lighter subjects, as I know I can get pretty depressing when I’m talking to you, I truly do believe that Black Hayate should be given the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. And that’s all you’re going to get about that, Maes. Fuery can whine all he wants. _

 


	20. Letter #20

**_~Letter #20~_ **

_ Today is the Promised Day, Maes. Today is the war for Amestris. _

_ I just wanted to say goodbye in case we fail, in case I don’t get the chance to write you another letter. _

_ I have to admit, Maes, I’m a little terrified. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s not my life I’m worried, for it’s everyone else’s. Hawkeye or Breda or Fuery. They could all fall while standing by my side, fighting the homunculi and all the soldiers of Central, who don’t that we’re actually fighting for  _ them _. _

_ I don’t want to finish another letter with the words “Truth help us,” but I really think we’ll need it now Maes. Pray for us from the other side? _


	21. Letter #21

**_~Letter #21~_ **

_ The Promised Day is over, Maes, and we won.  _

_ Admittedly, I was blinded and Hawkeye nearly bled out, plus we lost Fu and Buccaneer, but we won the war.  _

_ It’s been a few weeks now. Doctor Marcoh still had a philosopher’s stone, and used it to heal Havoc, and then myself. Havoc can walk, and is issuing for reinstatement as we speak. Our new Fuhrer is looking like it’s going to be Grumman, so Havoc is hopeful for getting his job back. _

_ And no, Maes, I didn’t get the presidency. It was mostly because I was injured at the time of the emergency election, so I obviously couldn’t be chosen. And most of the people still think I was inciting a revolution, so giving me the position of Fuhrer wasn’t a good idea in the first place. _

_ Alphonse got his body back, and Fullmetal (no longer Fullmetal, I suppose. He walked up to me in my hospital room a few weeks ago, while I was still blind, tossed his watch into my lap, and told me loudly that he quits) got his arm back. Edward didn’t get his leg back, but I think it had something to do with the equivalency. He also lost his alchemy. Think of it, Maes. Edward Elric, with no alchemy! It’s quite an odd idea, but he seems fine with it. _

_ All of the homunculi have been destroyed, including the one who murdered you. Envy. I nearly got Hawkeye’s bullet in the back of the head, but she, Edward, and Scar- of all people- brought me back from the brink of destructive hatred. And I am grateful for it. Imagine what a dark person I would have become if they had let me be consumed by my own hatred. _

_ Look what it did to Scar, after all. I suppose that’s why he stopped me. He realized that this endless cycle of hatred would have just begun anew if he had let me kill Envy. _

_ And everything would be fine, were it not that I have bad dreams. Memories of a war long ended are coming back, identifying and combining with memories of a new war.  _

_ I saw the other side, Maes. The homunculi forced me to open the Portal of Truth, the very same one Edward and Alphonse opened. That’s what took my sight. There were such nightmares in that Portal, Maes. Such strange things, Maes. Something like alternate universes, I think. _

_ There was one where the Promised Day never happened at all. Al’s metal body was marked with strange symbols, and Edward fought with Envy. Envy killed Edward. I looked away from that projection as soon as I could. _

_ When I looked away, I couldn't help but look into another, because I couldn’t shut my eyes. A world where we failed. The homunculi were forcing the human transmutation, and I, as I had really thought of doing when the act was being done, told Hawkeye to kill me. And she did. And time seemed to stop. _

_ What horrible possibilities, Maes. I’m glad this world ended up like it did. This seemed the best alternative out of all the countless others I saw. _

_ But now Amestris and its people are headed toward a better future. We are healing. And I am too.  _

_ I think, to heal myself further, I have to let you go. That’s the whole reason I was writing to you, I think. To hold on to you as long as was humanly possible, which it never was. I think it’s time for these letters to end. _

_ Goodbye, my friend. I won’t ever forget you. _

 


End file.
